writing

Hope you are enjoying my bike or parts of it that you couldn’t sell. If you’ve sold it in the nether market, the money must have bought you a few pleasures. But, I am straying from the point now, digressing, if you understand the word. That was no aspersion on your education, but just a thought that occurred to me. In your profession, you cannot afford to digress. You cannot head for the bike shed with your chain cutters and suddenly entertain an alternative thought, like “Let me check out the Magnolia tree. Its blossoms are so overwhelmingly beautiful this time of the year”. No. You will be the master of concentration, one-track minded, a Zen of bicycle thievery.

Gopi: An open letter to my cycle thief

I am being given a replacement bike, having won long and tedious arguments with the insurance company. I really wished I had your phone number because the insurance wanted a photograph of the stolen bicycle and I could have asked you to text me one. You could have been part of the photograph, complete with your hoodie masking your ugly face. I am assuming you have an ugly face because your hoodie would be doing you a double favour then, wouldn’t it? Granted, some thieves are good looking. But they are way above your league. They wear ill-fitting Saville Row suits, crocodile skin shoes and millstone necklaces. They don’t steal small things like bicycles, they steal an entire nation.[Read more…] about An Open Letter to My Cycle Thief

…Alan Hill, the young naturalist from Ireland, who is again in England on holiday, came over to see me, and we took our tea to Farley Mount. Alan was on a motorbike, so he went on and waited for me there.

Among the commoner plants and other wildlife they note there, Gran describes passing a “flowery corner, teeming with butterflies, among them several lovely Silver-washed Fritillaries”.

“This was the area”, Dad reminds me, “which was known to the family as Pa’s Corner, strictly in Crab Wood. It is now an overgrown picnic area, and there are very few butterflies to be seen”.

Gran, in her journal, adds:

I picked a spray of Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna since I had promised to paint it for Maureen Toole… We enjoyed our tea among the downland flowers before climbing up to the monument, from which we had an excellent view of the Isle of Wight, bathed in brilliant sunshine, and Fawley.

Union Castle ship interiors; a window is unveiled; a male Blackbird sits; a Jaguar at Noar Hill; a Gannet and a murder in Dorset; a bird’s identity unresolved; unsporting behaviour and a long day across the border in Sussex.

On June 20th 1956, having first checked her Blackbirds’ nest, the progress of which she is following in the garden, Gran says:

Later I went to Southampton, where it was Visitors’ Day on board the “Winchester Castle”, and I was shewn over the ship by an official of the Union Castle Line, who entertained a small party to lunch in the dining room afterwards. I have, of course, been over several Castle boats before, when delivering flowers for Fowlers’, but today I saw the lounge, swimming pool and smoke-room, and enjoyed an excellent lunch on board as well.

The woodwork throughout is of a delightful golden-yellow, and the furnishings in pastel shades, which tone together beautifully. The pictures are in good taste also, and in one suite there hung one by Russell Flint, R.A. depicting a mountain scene of great charm and colour. All the draperies, such as bedspreads, cushions and eiderdowns, are of different colour in each cabin, but all are in keeping with the golden woodwork. An orchestra was playing during lunch.

Samples of the chef’s art, in the way of dressed and decorated meats, were arranged on a table outside the dining-room, and the sight of them made the mouth water in advance! The sun was shining and the gulls constantly circled round the ship.

Beautiful Union Castle Line ships tied up at Southampton in the 1960s. Image by my Father-in-law, the late Wilfred Vickers.

Book 58

On May 19th 1956 Gran tells us: “As always at Whitsun I recorded the evening chorus for the Glanton Bird Research Station, and, for the purpose, went down to the Lake.” She notes the times of the day’s last songs and calls of a total of nineteen species, including Cuckoo and Wood Warbler, the only two species on her list unlikely to be heard there nowadays. No Nightingale is heard, nor a Nightjar, so it appears that these summer visitors no longer find the habitats suitable in their old Hiltingbury haunts. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 79)

Burgeoning Spring; a film star’s wedding; can Jane land a job?; Bill Goater; a life’s ambition fulfilled; more despoilation of the countryside, but Nightingales still hang on – for now.

It’s Spring 1956, and Gran is enjoying the first Cuckoos, nesting Blackbirds, and news of a Willow Warbler singing at Baddesley. Daffodils, Violets and Primroses are up, and Tortoiseshell and Brimstone butterflies are on the wing. Indeed, on April 9th:

Jane counted thirty-three Brimstones between Otterbourne and Winchester when she went to Winchester shopping. Both she and I have lost our hibernating Tortoiseshells today and our bedrooms seem quite empty without them! There was a Slow-worm in the garden, enjoying the warm sunshine in the shelter of the Heather.

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I’m hoping that Chandler’s Ford Today readers might be able to identify the location and some of the children in this photograph. Maybe its Sherborne House School. My mother, Joyce MacNoe is top centre, and my aunt, Jane Goater, is third up on the right. All these children would have been born in the 1930s. [Read more…] about Who are These Children in Chandler’s Ford?

Poles Lane is straightened; snowdrops from Ladwell House; flower arranging with sinister orchids; The Lake is frozen; a loved tree is felled; articles by Barry; five new birds and a Starling visits 99 Kingsway.

Book 56

February 6th 1956 is a Spring-like day, Gran taking much pleasure in the newly shooting Dog’s-tooth Violets and great numbers of Narcissus cyclamineus showing buds in the garden of The Ridge. She:

…heard a very enjoyable concert on the radio this evening, in which Denis Matthews was the very able soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B. minor. I had previously listened to an excerpt from Winnie-the-Pooh, that classic by A.A. Milne, in Children’s Hour, with equal enjoyment, so no-one can accuse me of being conservative in my taste, even though there are programmes to which I have not the least desire to listen.

The Master Builder’s House at Bucklers Hard; the “Any Questions?” botanical expert; a lone rabbit at Farley Mount; an aunt dies; a pipe bursts; thirty-eight pounds of marmalade and two days at The Severn Wildfowl Trust.

1956

The new year begins, and that morning Gran is uplifted, writing:

I was delighted… when my kitchen spider, who has lain inanimate for weeks without food on her great batch of eggs, suddenly descended on a silken thread to the window-sill and then ascended again with tremendous agility to her eggs. I thought she had been dead a long time and was overjoyed to find her well and active.

A short while back I went for a Chinese Take-away meal. I was served by a youngster aged between seven and eight years old. She tapped my order on to a computer screen which transmitted details to the kitchen staff, then calculated the cost of my order, which I paid, and very professionally counted out my change.

‘Please don’t read that paper’

I then began to read the newspaper which was lying on the counter, but the girl said ‘Please don’t read that paper’. I looked puzzled and she added, ‘Please, I don’t want you to read that paper’. Facing such strongly expressed feelings I decided not to read the paper and pushed it to one side. [Read more…] about Chinese Take-away Meal

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Who are the Gilet Jaunes?

The gilet jaunes or yellow jackets movement is a populist, grassroots political movement for economic justice that began in France in 2018. An online petition posted in May reached 300,000 signatures by mid-October and was followed by regular mass demonstrations beginning on 17 November. I spend part of my life in Normandy. The following report is based on my personal experience. [Read more…] about What is Happening in France? The Gilet Jaunes Protests.

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It is the season of parties, not to be left out, we are arranging one. Is it any different in Sri Lanka?

Invitations –

Sri Lankans do not seem to plan their diaries too far ahead nor do they always respond to invites but they turn up on the dot. There is no angst about who to invite and there is no angst about who should come. If you have friends staying, you take them along. [Read more…] about Party

The woods “pitiably thinned”; nine years of this “labour of love”; Gran disappears into a trench; Hugh Boyd – goose guru; “pink makes the boys wink”; a proud moment; a traditional Christmas and Julian smokes during the National Anthem!

On November 21st 1955, Gran is surprisingly sanguine about the unwelcome developments on her doorstep:

This afternoon I finished the Poppy calendar and decided this is the one for Mary. Somehow it looks like hers. The sun was still shining, burnishing the tips of the trees opposite here, whereon a few last golden leaves are clinging, and giving a beautiful sheen to the velvet-dark Yew trees, which, thank God, are still standing. But the opposite wood is pitiably thinned and a little township is springing up where once I gathered blackberries and vetch, and listened to the warblers, watched the Siskins and saw the first Brimstones in Spring. Soon I shall have to roam far afield for the glories that have been on my doorstep for over twenty-seven years. But I am very grateful for the years in which I have known them.

Forty-eight paintings on show; Brother is a “good scout”; a pet spider; Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend; another spider – with bananas; Nuthatch behaviour; Dr Barnardo’s Homes; the reason for the velvet gown, and Gran dances the last waltz.

On October 21st 1955, Gran tells us that tomorrow will be a full day:

…for I leave home …for London where later I visit the British Empire Naturalists’ Association Jubilee Exhibition at Kensington Museum, in which my flower paintings and Jane’s collection of birds’ feathers will be on view. I shall stay at Kingston for the night and go on to the London B.E.N.A. field outing on Sunday…

The journey by train early the following morning frustrates her; to start with, the train is six minutes late, and, she adds:

…throughout the journey, steamy windows within the carriage, smoke from the train without on one side, and the fact that I could not get a corner seat, all contrived to restrict my observations to the very minimum.

On August 20th 1955, Gran plays tennis in the heat in Eastleigh and enjoys an evening at home listening to a Promenade Concert with much music by Gilbert and Sullivan, which she loves. She records that:

At the end of the concert, after Suppé’s “Poet and Peasant Overture”, which was encored, Sir Malcolm was presented with a Peter Scott bird picture in recognition of his sixtieth birthday in April and his work for the Promenade Concerts, by a representative of all Promenaders, both at the concert in person, and listening in at home. Unfortunately we did not hear Sir Malcolm’s response.

Tennis on the telly; a visit to Selborne; a mouse in the bed; an act of kindness; historic activity with “our pale lady”; birthday gifts; Ricky is christened; like old times in the New Forest; The Ridge – fully furnished at last, and a diversion – an important mentor and the Beaulieu Tomes.

Gran’s dislike of television seems to have been overcome, and the watching of it more or less normal by July 1st 1955, the word itself no longer qualifying for a capital “T”:

I spent this afternoon glued to the next-door television and saw Tony Trabert of America, win the Men’s singles at Wimbledon from Kurt Nielsen of Denmark… I saw the gold cup presented to the winner by the Duchess of Kent and there was much fun and laughter between the victor and the vanquished which was good to see.

An encouraging and pleasing result of play in the semi-finals of the Women’s doubles is the fact that there will be an All-British final tomorrow – the first since 1936!

At 11 in the morning of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns fell silent on the fronts of the world at war. Turn your minds to that event and write a strict 500 words to catch the moment.[Read more…] about Armistice

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Studying orchids with The Expert; a dream comes true – in the shape of a budgie; Jane does well; a visit to Mill Hill; Compton Church is 800 years old; television – for the first time; painting flowers at a great rate and a family link with the troopship Dilwara.

Book 51

News from Mr Roseweir on June 4th 1955, is that V.S. Summerhayes, the Orchid specialist from Kew, plans to visit the area the following day. Gran, with Brother and Fin make their way to Steven’s Castle Down, in the east of the County, in order to check on the condition of the orchids he plans to investigate there. Stopping on their way, to check the Farley Mount area also, she notes:

We turned left at the Farley – Sparsholt fork, past what used to be the vast rookery, but today I hardly recognised it, for all the fine old beech trees have been felled and there is now a wide-open space. If it was cleared in the hope of destroying the rookery, the result must be disappointing, for the Rooks are now occupying a line of Pine trees beside the road, only a few yards away!